The following advertisement appeared in the Dutch newspapers 'De
Volkskrant' and 'NRC/Handelsblad' Saturday 28 October 1995.
This is a translation and a summary of the Dutch text. No rights can
be derived from it.
The Centre for Language and Communication seeks candidates for
1 Graduate Position
The Centre for Language and Communication (CLC) pursues two related
goals. One is to increase our understanding of factors involved in
the success, or failure, of linguistic communication, up to and
including constraints that determine the limits of success. The second
is to develop, on the basis of such fundamental understanding, tools
for evaluating and, if possible, improving such processes of
linguistic communication. The actual use of such tools in concrete
situations in turn provides important empirical considerations for
fundamental research. The empirical domain of CLC research includes
communication in native as well as foreign languages. The CLC research
comprises eight research projects, among which _Language Acquisition_,
_Language Instruction_, _Discourse Characteristics_, and _Discourse
Interpretation_.
In the project _Discourse Characteristics_, functional-linguistic
analyses are made of linguistic features influencing the cognitive
representation language users make of a discourse. The graduate
position is within the _Discourse Characteristics_ project.
More specifically, it concerns the following project COHERENCE
RELATIONS AND THEIR CONNECTIVES IN THREE EUROPEAN LANGUAGES The first
goal of the project is to make a cross-linguistic analysis of the way
in which the distinction between content (such as _Cause-Consequence_)
and epistemic coherence relations (such as _Argument-Conclusion_) are
coded in the connectives of Dutch (as in _doordat_ and _dus_; in
English something similar is found for _since_ and _as a result_ vs
_because_ and _it follows that_), German and Spanish. The second goal
is to develop language proficiency tests on the basis of the
linguistic analyses mentioned above, in which the productive use of
this distinction by mother tongue speakers, and subsequently by
L2-learners can be investigated.
Candidates are asked to apply for a graduate position within one of
these disciplines.
The appointed graduate is to do research within the above-mentioned
research programme, leading to a thesis within four years. In
preparation of your thesis you will have admittance to the
PhD-training programme of the Netherlands Graduate School of
Linguistics (LOT).
THE SUCCESFUL CANDIDATE has an MA in Dutch, German, or Spanish, or in
a related field. Preferrably, the candidate has experience with
linguistic research on connectives, text-analytical research and
experimental research.
At the moment, it is still unclear whether you will receive a grant,
or will be appointed as AIO (research trainee). If you are appointed
as AIO, you may have some teaching duties. Pending Utrecht
University's decision whether to introduce grants, we offer a grant of
about Dfl. 2.000,= a month (no withholding for taxes and social
security), or an appointment as an AIO. In the latter case you will
receive a salary of Dfl. 2.078 per month (subject to withholding for
taxes and social security) on the first year, rising to Dfl. 3.710,=
per month (subject to withholding for taxes and social security) in
the fourth year.
Letters of application, including Curriculum Vitae, a list of academic
results, M.A.-thesis and/or recent publication(s) and two references
can be sent to
Afd. Personeel & Organisatie
Faculteit Letteren
t.a.v. Dhr. G.A. Collignon
Kromme Nieuwe Gracht 46
3512 HJ Utrecht
The Netherlands
refer to "Vac. no. 68511"
For further information you can contact one of the project leaders
Dr. H. Pander Maat (phone 31 30 2538167), or Dr. T. Sanders, also
PhD-programme coordinator of CLC, phone 31 30 2536080, e-mail
Ted.Sanderslet.ruu.nl.
Ted Sanders - Centre for Language and Communication - Universiteit
Utrecht Trans 10 - 3512 JK Utrecht - e-mail: Ted.Sanderslet.ruu.nl
Tel. 030-536080.